Managing the Impact of Disaster

Abstract

While evacuation behaviour and shelter choice have been extensively studied in developed countries, very limited research exists on the challenges faced by disaster survivors from developing countries. This is especially critical in countries where there is an absence of pre-designated shelters, lack of staging capacities and most importantly an inability of public sector entities to manage catastrophic events, independent of local and international non-profit organizations. This article aims to fill this gap by investigating on evacuation, decision-making and shelter choice in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. We present our findings from a survey of 1,000 randomly selected households from 15 villages and one urban settlement in the Nagapattinam District (Tamil Nadu, India). Our research suggests that approximately 79.6 per cent of displaced households selected permanent public buildings and religious or community buildings as their first choice of shelter. Our analysis suggests that these decisions were affected by the severity of damage to homes, whether families were separated while evacuating and taking shelter, and their socioeconomic characteristics.

Key words:

• Temporary sheltering
• shelter duration
• shelter designation
• Indian Ocean tsunami
• Nagapattinam

Notes

1. Similar patterns of sheltering behaviour have been observed in Guatemala after the 1976 earthquake (Peacock et al., 1987; Bates and Peacock, 2008).

2. In the state of Tamil Nadu, the response and restoration of infrastructure was quick and decisive (Arya et al., 2006; Srinivasan and Nagaraj, 2006). About 1,000 district staff and 380 staff members from other districts were involved in the response efforts. Together with volunteers from the local communities, they were joined by 200 military officers, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, and numerous superintendents and almost 1,500 officers. Within a week, the government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN) announced initial relief packages, issuing numerous number of Government Orders (G.Os.) dealing with emergency relief (Prater et al., 2006). A week after the tsunami, on 6 January 2005, the GoTN authorized the District Collector to construct temporary shelters through Government Order Ms 10 (i.e. G.O. Ms 10) at a cost of Rs. 8,000 (conversion rate: 1US Dollar = 45 Indian rupees) per family for 50,000 households.

3. In the Nagapattinam District, about 193 NGOs were registered with the NGO Coordination and Resource Centre (NCRC). Due to under-reporting on most activities conducted by non-registered NGO, the fuller extent of NGO assistance during the recovery phase of disaster is difficult to determine.

4. The scheduled castes (SCs), also known as the Dalit, and the scheduled tribes (STs) are two groupings of historically disadvantaged people that are given special recognition in the Constitution of India. The SCs and STs make up around 15% and 7.5%, respectively of India's population.